nsequences of having forgotten it!" replied
Mr. Raven, who stood leaning over the margin of the basin, and stretched
his hand across to me.

I took it, and was immediately beside him on the lawn, dripping and
streaming.

"You must change your clothes at once!" he said. "A wetting does not
signify where you come from--though at present such an accident is
unusual; here it has its inconveniences!"

He was again a raven, walking, with something stately in his step,
toward the house, the door of which stood open.

"I have not much to change!" I laughed; for I had flung aside my robe to
climb the tree.

"It is a long time since I moulted a feather!" said the raven.

In the house no one seemed awake. I went to my room, found a
dressing-gown, and descended to the library.

As I entered, the librarian came from the closet. I threw myself on a
couch. Mr. Raven drew a chair to my side and sat down. For a minute or
two neither spoke. I was the first to break the silence.

"What does it all mean?" I said.

"A good question!" he rejoined: "nobody knows what anything is; a man
can learn only what a thing means! Whether he do, depends on the use he
is making of it."

"I have made no use of anything yet!"

"Not much; but you know the fact, and that is something! Most people
take more than a lifetime to learn that they have learned nothing, and
done less! At least you have not been without the desire to be of use!"

"I did want to do something for the children--the precious Little Ones,
I mean."

"I know you did--and started the wrong way!"

"I did not know the right way."

"That is true also--but you are to blame that you did not."

"I am ready to believe whatever you tell me--as soon as I understand
what it means."

"Had you accepted our invitation, you would have known the right way.
When a man will not act where he is, he must go far to find his work."

"Indeed I have gone far, and got nowhere, for I have not found my work!
I left the children to learn how to serve them, and have only learned
the danger they are in."

"When you were with them, you were where you could help them: you left
your work to look for it! It takes a wise man to know when to go away; a
fool may learn to go back at once!"

"Do you mean, sir, I could have done something for the Little Ones by
staying with them?"

"Could you teach them anything by leaving them?"

"No; but how could I teach them? I did not know how to begin. Besides,